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Numbers 5 · a question people ask

How did the water work?

In the text

The text doesn't say. It says what went into it: "holy water in an earthen vessel" and "some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle" (5:17), and the curses the priest writes "in a book" and wipes "into the water of bitterness" (5:23). It says everything was done "before the LORD" (5:16, 5:18, 5:30), and the curse the priest speaks begins, "May the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people" (5:21). It gives the outcome for each case (5:27-28). It doesn't explain how the water brought that about, so any explanation goes beyond the text.

The verses

“The priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD. The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. The priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse.”
Numbers 5:16-18 · World English Bible
“then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, “May the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell;”
Numbers 5:21 · World English Bible
““‘The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wipe them into the water of bitterness.”
Numbers 5:23 · World English Bible
“When he has made her drink the water, then it shall happen, if she is defiled and has committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse will enter into her and become bitter, and her body will swell, and her thigh will fall away; and the woman will be a curse among her people. If the woman isn’t defiled, but is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive offspring.”
Numbers 5:27-28 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 5

Numbers 5: In the midst of which I dwell

Numbers 5 calls a wrong done to another person a trespass "against the LORD" and asks for confession as well as full repayment with a fifth added (5:6-7). Its hardest law is written for an innocent wife as well as a guilty one (5:14), and brings what no one saw "before the LORD" (5:16). All of it keeps a camp where the LORD says, "I dwell" (5:3).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions